Every electrician has had the conversation where a builder says "we already have a guy" about a house that hasn't been framed yet. Not because your price was wrong. Because the decision got made in a phone call six weeks ago that you didn't know was happening.
Electrical is one of the few trades that pulls its own permit, which feels like it should be an advantage in a world of permit data. It is — just not in the way most electricians assume.
Three kinds of electrical work, three different buyers
Electrical contractor leads aren't one thing, and the three kinds arrive through completely different doors. Most shops are strong in one and quietly ignore the other two, which is why leads for electricians so often arrive from a single channel and then dry up.
Service and repair
Dead outlets, tripping breakers, a smell somebody can't identify. Same-day, low ticket, won by whoever answers the phone. Local search does the heavy lifting here — a complete Google Business Profile with accurate hours will beat anything you can buy, because the search happens on a phone in a dark kitchen. Worth doing well, but it won't build a business on its own — and the free sources cover it better than anything paid.
Panel upgrades, EV chargers and service changes
The quiet growth area in residential electrical. Higher ticket than service work, planned rather than urgent, and it does pull its own permit — which makes it genuinely different from the new-build category below. Homeowners shop these, so you're usually quoting against two or three others, and the decision is made on trust and timing more than price. Referrals and past customers convert far better here than cold leads, which is true across every free source worth running.
New builds and remodels
The largest tickets, the longest runway, and the category this article is mostly about. A general contractor or builder selects an electrical sub, usually from a shortlist of people he already knows, and usually well before anyone files an electrical permit. That timing is the whole game and it's covered in the next section. It's the same dynamic that decides HVAC rough-in work.
Run at least two of the three. Service work smooths cash flow, panel and EV work carries margin, and builder relationships carry volume. A shop doing only one is a shop with a single point of failure.
Why the electrical permit is the wrong permit to watch
Here's the thing that trips up most electricians hunting leads. If you go looking for electrical permits in your county, you will find them — and every single one represents a job somebody else already won.
The sequence on a build runs roughly like this. The GC or owner pulls the building permit. Design and scheduling happen. Subs get selected, mostly by phone, mostly from people the GC has used before. Then the electrical sub who got the job files the electrical permit in his own name, and rough-in follows.
So an electrical permit is a record of a decision that's already been made. Useful for understanding your market — who's busy, which builders use which subs, how much work is moving — but useless as a lead, because the buyer stopped shopping weeks ago.
The building permit is the one that matters. It appears at the front of that sequence, before subs are selected, and the applicant named on it is the person about to need an electrician. On a single-family or new build that applicant is the general contractor. That's a window rather than a notification, and the window is where the work gets won. Checking what filed in your county costs nothing.
Two honest caveats. On design-bid-build the ordering can differ, and some jurisdictions take trade permit applications alongside the main filing rather than after — delivery method changes the sequence and it's worth learning how it runs in your own county. And for panel upgrades and EV installs, the electrical permit genuinely is the job rather than a signal, because the homeowner is the buyer and nobody else is in between. Finish trades face the opposite problem — they never pull a permit at all.
What getting in early is worth
"Be early" is easy advice. Here's what it does to the numbers, using twenty builder contacts as the unit of effort.
| Contact at building permit | Contact at electrical permit | |
|---|---|---|
| Builders contacted | 20 | 20 |
| Sub already selected | 35% | 100% |
| Still deciding | 13 | 0 |
| Reach the person who picks | 50% | — |
| Conversations | 6.5 | — |
| Quote requested | 50% | — |
| Quotes given | 3.3 | — |
| Win rate on quotes | 30% | — |
| Jobs won per 20 contacts | 1.0 | 0 |
Illustrative. Substitute your own reach and win rates — the row that decides everything is the first one, and it's decided by timing rather than effort.
The right-hand column isn't an exaggeration for effect. If the electrical permit has been filed, the sub is named on it. There is no version of that call where you win the job, which is why the rest of the column is empty.
What the table actually argues is narrower than "be early." It's that the first row is the only one you control through timing, and it swings from 100% lost to 35% lost. Everything below it — reach, quoting, closing — is ordinary sales work you're presumably already decent at. You just have to be having the conversation while there's still a decision left to make — the same arithmetic that governs any paid lead source.
Worth noting the second column costs the same to work. Twenty calls is twenty calls. The difference in outcome is entirely when you made them. Compare that against what access costs for a month.
What to check before paying for electrical leads
Electrical leads are not cheap in any channel, so it's worth being precise about what you're buying.
Question two is the one nobody asks. Ask a provider whether their electrical data comes from building permits or electrical permits, and listen carefully to how long the answer takes.
Where TigerLeads fits
We're built on building permit activity — the filing at the front of the sequence, not the trade permit at the end. Records are gathered automatically and reviewed by a person before release, across 39 states and more than 300 jurisdictions, updated daily.
The best electrical contractor leads come out of that filing: builds in your county this month, with the permit applicant attached — on a single-family or new build, that's the general contractor — while the electrical scope is still open. It isn't a notification that somebody wants a quote. It's the buildings going up in your county and the people responsible for them, early enough to make the call worth making.
The specifics, all checkable before you spend anything. Every record carries 20 data points, five visible free — permit type, job cost, project description, county/city and state — so a custom home and a water-heater swap are distinguishable without unlocking anything. Unlock cost is shown before you confirm and is scored on record quality rather than charged flat. A maximum of five contractors of the same trade can access any given lead, with remaining availability visible up front. And it's free to start with no credit card.
What it won't do is hand you service work. Nobody with a dead outlet appears in a permit record, and if emergency calls are most of your revenue your Google Business Profile and past customers will do more for you than this will. Panel and EV work sits in between — those pull permits, but the homeowner has usually already chosen someone by the time one is filed.
Builder work is where this earns its keep, and it's where electrical contractor leads are worth paying for at all, because that's the category where the decision happens before anyone files anything. You can read how the records are sourced and verified before deciding whether that fits your shop.
See which builders filed in your county this month. Free to start, no credit card. Filter to your area, check who's attached to each build, and see the unlock cost before you spend anything. Get started free · See pricing · (888) 888-1214
Frequently asked questions
Where do electrical contractor leads come from?
Three places, matching the three kinds of work. Service and repair arrives through local search, mostly Google. Panel upgrades and EV installs come from referrals, past customers and homeowner search. New builds and remodels come from general contractors and builders, who select subs from a shortlist rather than advertising the work.
Can I find electrical work from permit records?
Yes, but not from electrical permits. An electrical permit is filed by the contractor who already won the job, so it records a decision rather than an opportunity. The building permit pulled by the general contractor appears earlier, before subs are selected, which is the point at which an electrician can still get in.
How far ahead of rough-in does a builder pick an electrician?
It varies by builder and project, but the selection generally happens well before the electrical permit is filed and often shortly after the building permit is issued. Production builders tend to have standing relationships; custom and smaller builders shop more, which is where a well-timed introduction has the most effect.
Are paid leads worth it for electricians?
It depends which of the three kinds you want. For service work, local search usually beats paid leads per dollar. For builder work, a source that reaches you before subs are selected is worth real money, because those jobs are never advertised. Measure cost per booked job by category rather than cost per lead, then compare against what access actually costs.
How do I get on a builder's shortlist?
By being known before he needs you. Builders reuse electricians who answer the phone, show up on the scheduled day and don't create problems at inspection. The practical route is contacting builders shortly after they file a permit, when the job is real but the sub hasn't been chosen, rather than calling when you happen to have capacity. Arriving before the shortlist is the whole play.
What's the difference between a building permit and an electrical permit?
A building permit covers the overall project and is pulled by the general contractor or owner at the start. An electrical permit covers the electrical scope specifically and is pulled by the licensed electrical contractor doing the work, usually after that contractor has been selected. One marks the beginning of a job; the other marks the end of a hiring decision.